It was the year 2000, and I was in love. It wasn’t another supermodel or a figure skater, but a website for audio books called Audible. You see, I had been an avid reader for most of my adult life, but I was working full time and going to b-school at night, so my busy life left me starved for pleasure reading. Then Audible walked into my life.

Audible’s library of daily news and audio books provided me an easy way to pass myself off as “well read” and I, and many others, cheered. However, internet years are like dog years and Audible appears to be growing old. The rise of podcasts, satellite radio and video integration across handheld devices is taking the wind out of Audible’s sails.

Site traffic is down 39% year over year which corresponds to a 40% decline in Audible’s stock price.
One of Audible’s biggest problems is that it can’t get its members to spend more money. Its executives talk about this issue in the Q3 earnings call and Compete data corroborates.

I have to be honest, I’m not helping. I’ve let my subscription lapse because my life has changed and it’s no longer worth the 5 minutes it takes to download the news or browse for more books. I’ve tried everything – even the wireless application that lets me download content over the air, but it just hasn’t been worth the hassle. Maybe Apple’s new iPhone will make it so easy to get fresh content on my handheld device that I’ll reconnect with Audible.

I hope so.

I miss Audible. I’ll have to give her a call sometime.

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• audible.com

Wal-Mart has had a few tough years in the PR department. For years suppliers and local merchants have complained about Wal-Mart’s “bully” practices. In Nov ’05, Wal-Mart’s employment practices motivated an entire documentary film and recently Wal-Mart was flagged for sponsoring a flog (a fake blog) in an attempt to help bolster its public image.

The mounting angst towards Wal-Mart has spawned two union supported anti Wal-Mart sites to educate the masses on what it perceives as unethical practices – wakeupwalmart.com and walmartwatch.com.

War Cries:

It gets worse for Wal-Mart… Prominent government figure heads and organizations are jumping on the anti Wal-Mart band wagon.

Barack Obama (a rising star in the Democratic party) declared a “battle” to force Wal-Mart to examine it policies towards its workers.

AFA (American Family Association - a leading Christian group) was disappointed when Wal-Mart (i) chose to support the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and (ii) began stocking the legal morning after pill. As a result the organization called for a boycott of Wal-Mart on the day after Thanksgiving.

The Silver Lining:

Yes, more and more people are vocalizing their discontent with Wal-Mart. They are getting hit by the left and the right and interest in anti Wal-Mart sites is steadily rising… But before you cry a river for Wal-Mart take a look at what’s happening at Wal-Mart’s own walmartfacts.com.

Wal-Mart’s pro Wal-Mart site is yielding over 4x the visitation compared to the anti Wal-Mart sites. That means for every one person that reads a jab on wakeupwalmart about 4.5 others will read a sunshine report on walmartfacts.

The internet enables a virtual soap box and response to all issues. There is always a conversation about your product or service and if you don’t think there is – then you just don’t get ‘it’. Wal-Mart is starting to get ‘it’ and use ‘it’ to its advantage. The flog incident was embarrassing, but it shows that Wal-Mart is beginning to understand their web presence doesn’t begin and end at walmart.com.

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• walmart.com
• wakeupwalmart.com
• walmartwatch.com
• walmartfacts.com